All Change! Out-take: When to use Processes, not Projects

While I'm ruminating over what I have just learnt, Franck takes advantage of my low defences and goes for the jugular.

?"I'll bet you,” he says, "that you can't tell me straight off, exactly what a process processes."

?"What do you mean?"

?"Well, you've been using the word process over and over. You've applied it to organisations and especially business operations.? What exactly does a process, process?"

?"What's the bet?" I ask. He opens up the in-flight magazine and points to an amusing set of cuff links. Cuff links with two green smiling frogs with a gold chain between them.? "You're on." I think about the question for a second. I think about my own organisation and its mix of goods and services and say confidently, "A process processes raw materials into finished goods."

?"So a process processes materials? Anything else?"

?"Yes, we also process information."

?"Information?"

?I nod quickly in the affirmative.

?"Are you sure that you don't process data?"

?"Yes," I reply impatiently. I think Franck is being pedantic. "Data, information, data and information." Franck's expression betrays that he doesn't completely agree but that he will let it pass. I can't see his problem so I leap straight in and close the discussion. "There you go, what was it the bet was for?"

?"You don't win yet." He says with a wicked grin. "There is one more thing that a process processes."

?I feel glum. I've lost.

?"There is," he insists, and with that starts to look round the cabin of the plane.

?"What?" I ask despairingly, "There isn't. You're just making it up so you won't lose the bet."

He ignores my accusations of cheating. "So what else do you think organisations process?"

I can't think of an answer so I stall, shaking my head. I try to joke my way out of having to show how ignorant I am. I say. "Well sometimes on these flights you feel processed, like sardines in a can, especially at the back, all squashed in."

?"Brilliant!" Franck exclaims. "Yes, the third thing is people. You process people."

?I am so startled that I got to the right solution through my joke I look confused and say "Uh?"

?"Airlines process people. They do it very effectively?? In processing people, instead of starting with raw materials and then working your way to finished goods, you start with a person before a service and end up with a person who has received the service"

"Processing changes materials, data or people to a point where you are providing an offer or outcome.

Franck starts to explain. "When 'processing' people, you make experience good for them. You have to make them feel as if they are not being processed, so usually you involve a lot of personal contact and then you call it service.? You work on turning any negative aspects of being processed into positives, like free drinks because you get dehydrated up here or hot towels because you've been locked up in here for ages without a shower, sweets at take-off until the cabin is pressurised and so on. I think a lot of thought has gone into engineering this process."

"Processing changes materials, data or people to a point where you are providing an offer or outcome.? Two out of three and the third only after prompting. I'm afraid that you still lose the bet." He smiles with a little sympathy.

?"Give me another chance," I demand.

?"OK," he says, "double or quits."

?I agree.

What is the difference between a project and a process?

?Franck starts to mime. He is acting out the part of a quizmaster He holds up an imaginary card and pretends to read a question from it. For some reason he has selected to use a very nasal voice. I don't recognise who he is imitating. "What is the difference between a project and a process?"

?"Drat!" I think He's obviously been saving that one up. I obviously didn't convince him with my bluff that I knew the difference. "I think I told you that one before." I try to bluff my way out of it.

?He doesn't fall for it. "Let's pretend that you went to the factory where they made this pen, for a site visit. And let's say that you arrived there on Monday first thing in the morning for a 10-minute tour. And as you walked around, you were introduced to three people, Fred, Jo and Hans. Also as you walked around all you saw was some sheet metal and some lumps of plastic and a couple of cutting tools."

?I'm following him. He pulls the yellow pad from under my pile of notes and starts to draw. He draws axes and labels the horizontal one 'space' and the vertical one 'time'. He then cartoons sheet metal, lumps of plastic and tools.

?"You do the same thing on Tuesday.? Fred, Jo and Hans are still there but instead of sheet metal and lumps of plastic you find some metal tubes, triangles of metal and some small blue plastic cones. You also see a piece of equipment which looks like a bath."

I'm thinking, "I've lost him again. Why can't he just be normal and tell me what the point is? Why does everything need such a convoluted explanation? True he does make his point in a way which sticks, but I really want to get on. I've still got to think about preparing my presentation and the end of the flight is getting closer and closer," but I simply grit my teeth and listen.

?"On Wednesday only Jo and Hans are there and you now have a pile of pen barrels, a pile of gold nibs and a pile of blue plastic ends. Have things changed?"

?

"Yes." I say hurriedly.

?He is scribbling and it takes a moment for him to carry on. "Now imagine that you are visiting the factory a week later, on Monday again, only this time as you walked around you first walk past some sheet metal and some lumps of plastic and a couple of cutting tools. By the tools is Fred. You walk a bit further, past a piece of equipment which looks like a bath and some metal tubes, triangles of metal and some small blue plastic cones. You are introduced to Jo. Further along your route is Hans standing next to a pile of pen barrels, a pile of gold nibs and a pile of blue plastic ends."

?"On Tuesday you visit the factory to find it exactly the same."

?

?"Amazingly, on Wednesday when you visit, it's the same again. Have things changed?"

?"Er, No."

?"Without change there is no outcome. What if I told you that the second factory was producing pens, at the same rate as the first. Now would you say something has changed?"

?"Oh I see. Well, they are obviously passing the work along."

?Franck acknowledges agreement by drawing arrows on his diagram.

?"They both describe in a step-by-step fashion how the organisation goes about producing its offering. Which one is the process and which one is the project?"

?"The first one is the project." Talking with Franck seems to have rejuvenated many of my old and decrepit brain cells. I feel as if I'm finding it easier to think my way through the riddles and paradoxes he keeps posing.

?"Yes." He agrees on the first. "In projects the change is sequential.? The people are doing something different every day and use different equipment. The people experience change themselves.? In process the action is simultaneous or near simultaneous, Each person can do exactly the same thing every day and yet change still occurs. the people do not experience change themselves."

In projects the change is sequential.? In process the action is simultaneous

I drop my head into the palm of my right hand and say cynically, "I can see the difference but I don't understand why you have to go to such lengths to make what seems to be an esoteric and philosophical point."

"Because when you understand ALL Change you don't always have to do projects," he replies. "Anyone who doesn't understand the difference between projects and processes will find themselves running projects when they should be instead trying to engineer in processes. The first time you try to manage a chunk of change, change where the organisation is either unsure of what it has to do or how to do it, it will probably be open, foggy, a movie or a quest. But once you have delivered it and if the situation is unchanged. If you intend to repeat it again over and over, as a painting-by-numbers project in the future, you should stop running it as a project. I think you lose again."

Anyone who doesn't understand the difference between projects and processes will find themselves running projects when they should be instead trying to engineer in processes.

It makes sense. I've learnt even more about processes but I’m feeling sore. I'm feeling sore at losing the bet twice.

ENDS

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